fear

Ok, so, I am completely, irrationally scared ****less of the dark. It doesn't make any sense to me, I know its stupid, that nothing is going to come out and get me in the dark, but the fear still hits me when there is no light. I've been dealing with it my whole life, and it really bothers me because to everyone I know I'm like that guy they look out to to not be afraid, to be steady and support people, and I'm completely out of my mind scared of something as simple and common as the dark.

Lately its been getting worse, and I don't know what to do, I used to be able to convince myself to just walk like normal while berating myself about how there is nothing there and I'm being stupid. But now the fear seems to grip me so strongly that if there is noone else present I just have to get to the nearest source of light as quickly as possible.

do you sleep in the dark? i used to be afraid of it even in my room so i'd keep a little light on.. but i forced myself to do it with no lights on, and now my fear isn't as bad.. still get kinda scared outside in the dark though, considering there's thing's that walk through my yard that could eat me :grrr:

I can deal with it if I'm laying in my bed, but I'd usually rather have a light on. If I lay there awake for to long I start to panic though, I have to keep my eyes shut and lay still in order to keep the fear away.

I believe it would help if you would look at your problem objectively.

The fear you feel isn't so much of the dark but the loss of one of your primary senses. A person learns to rely on his senses and to loose one as important as vision puts you at a distinct disadvantage. The good part is, the worst thing you need to worry about in your house is most likely that shin eating table. Other than that, not much to worry about.

As I stated, once someone realizes what his real problem is, much of the mystery is gone and it's normally much easier to deal with.

I feared dark for some time. That was a time when my vision was perfect by the doctors chart. What I couldn't see, I couldn't sense was my principle back then. After a time I got a computer which I rarely take my eyes off and possibly due to that my vision got poorer. This resulted in me actually improving, or to be more precise, using my hearing to its full potential. Now even when I'm cooped in my little room(1h+) without taking my eyes off the screen for most of the time, I know exactly who is in this house and who's not and heard the conversations to know where the rest of the residents are(or at least where they said they were going).

I would think that the brain can only process a certain amount of data at a time and you could be too used to obtaining that data by seeing. This means that when its dark your brain is not getting enough information from it's preferred source(eyes) and is creating fear(releases adrenaline which improves eyesight) to receive more information to see that everything is allright and you are safe.

Try closing your eyes in a safe, even bright environment and probing with your other senses to estimate distances to noise/smell sources and checking with your eyes only afterwards. It might sound crazy but if you could get used to using more of your ears you could get more used to the dark.

closing my eyes doesn't make me scared though, and I've never had perfect vision in my life. Its like I scared of the damn boogyman, my mind convices myself unnatural things are going to get me, and I know its stupid, and not going to happen, but the fear still bites in at me every time.

You have been playing *crowbar swings* too long. It is time to go out into to the RL and see for yourself that everything that moves or looks like it could move is not hostile or just waiting for the right moment.

Seriously, I think that there's something behind this fear that you (can't see/aren't willing to accept) if the fear is as strong as I have an image of.

Talk to a close friend about this matter(the suppressed thing) if you can. IIRC Vivy might be a good candidate...

I am not willing to prod you to see what would come out, and the advice is better to accept and take to heart when heard from someone who you care about face to face.

If this sounds like you have some sort of mental illness... I'm sorry.

Irrational fears like that are usually caused by conditioning or a traumatic childhood event. I was terrified of cellars for some twenty years because of being abandoned in one for eight hours by my jackass brother. I didn't remember the event until I was 23, when my Grandmother asked if I remembered being locked it her cellar. After that, I wasn't bothered anymore by it. Ask around your family to see if you were locked somewhere as a child in the dark.

I gotta say get professional help. I know it's epensive and time consuming but I'm not gonna give amature phyceactric(sp) help to a stanger over the internet :scratch:
If it's getting as bad as you say then I recommend you take a walk through the yellow pages

All you have to do is think about how much it would suck if there was a rabid bloodthirsty timberwolf with beady red eyes silently hunting you down in the dark. You can feel him breathing down your neck before he sinks his bloodstained dull fangs into your neck while you feel his muscular zombie-like body with crusted bloody furr pins you to the ground while he eats you alive when you try to get a drink of water at night. That should take care of it.

ah you know i'm just tickling your willy. I kinda used to be the same way, (hence the wolf thing) but you just gotta turn it into something funny. Think to yourself, if something out there is trying to kill me, I will just beat his ***. THink to yourself, "ok, if he's gonna **** with me, I'm gonna **** with him" If a zombie jumps out from around the corner just picture yourself pulling out a flamethrower and torching him. It will make it seem funny and you forget about it.

fear of the dark isn't about losing a sense, it's about paranoia and having your mind drift to thoughts of what might be in the dark coupled with the realization that there is no way you can prove it isn't there, for all you know the boogey man is waiting in the dark, except that he isn't, but I would watch out for the timberwolves I hear theres a hell of alot of them in Texas

I look at it this way, what I can't see in the dark more than likely can't see me. And don't forget you have other senses to fall back on in case it's not that way. *remembers all of those wonderful TV shows that taught me that looks can be deceiving, and not to trust your eyes.*

But by prolonged time in the darkness have also allowed me to realize that your eyes become adjusted to the pitch black, where you can see pretty clearly in the night where others cannot, giving you the advantage.